


Stuck in the Past (But Kind if Enjoying it)

by SincerelyMarvel



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Avengers (2012) - Freeform, Captain America: The First Avenger, Fluff, Give Pepper a break, Howard Stark is the best dad ever, M/M, SteveTony, Stony - Freeform, Time Travel, Tony Potts, but not really, definitely inaccurate, probably inaccurate, we we’re too lazy to rewatch CA:TFA
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-01-23 04:09:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21313954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SincerelyMarvel/pseuds/SincerelyMarvel
Summary: After a failed attempt of creating a new clock, Tony Stark accidentally gives himself temporary powers of time travel and decides to travel into WWII like the sane person he is. Unfortunately, he accidentally travelled into what he thinks is some kind of torture sex chamber.He soon realizes he was witnessing the creation of Captain America.After his temporary powers give up on him, Tony is seemingly stuck in the past. Obviously not wanting that, he plans to recreate the machine that gave him the powers.But maybe there’s a reason for him to stay.TL;DR- Tony figures out time travel and becomes sort-of-more-than-friends with Captain America.
Relationships: Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 1
Kudos: 31





	1. Stupid Clock

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! We’re the writers of Stuck in the Past (But Kind if Enjoying it)! This is our first posted piece, we hope you like it!

12:37 AM

He knew he could finish it tonight if he just kept going. What reason did he have to stop anyway? Tony was no stranger to pulling all nighters while working on whatever it was he needed to get done, or in this case it was an all weeker while he worked himself to the bone to finish adjusting JARVIS' internal clock, which had been out of whack for a while.

He'd wake up on a Monday afternoon after a mind bendingly good nap and J would always say it was something stupid like Thursday or Friday (and on one fine day it was dubbed a Thriday) so yeah, it was about time to fix it.

He was making great progress too, in fact he was almost finished after one drowsy caffeine fueled week of work. (he had just gotten done with another project and decided that he was awake enough to go straight into another, but he didn't realize that the fatigue would slow him down because why would he, he's Tony stark) Tony rocked back in the chair he was sitting in and shut his eyes, dropping everything in his hands when they loosened up and he fell asleep again, so much for pushing through.

3:08 AM

Tony shot up, painfully aware of how uncomfortable his sleeping position has been for almost two hours now. He winced as he adjusted himself in the small chair and stared for a second at he small mess in front of him.

Oops.

With nothing better to do, he set himself on finishing this stupid project so he could finally go to sleep. That's something Tony never thought he would be wanting in a million years but he wanted it now, he needed it now. His head was as much of a mess as the crap that sat in front of him that he couldn't even remember starting.

6:46 AM

Way too long, or at least, that's what he told Pepper when she asked him how long he had gone without food. She just rolled her eyes and walked out, walking back in a few minutes later with the saddest stack of pancakes ever. Tony should've been done by now, but his self destructive attitude got the better of him in the end and it turns out, not eating for two days straight takes a toll on your energy levels and that combined with a serious case of sleep deprivation isn't very good for a person, who would've ever guessed.

He muttered a small thanks as she set them down in front of him and the slightly larger mess now that was sprawled out across the table. He gave a small wave and set back to work, ignoring the food. Pepper frowned, "Tony" she said sternly.

He turned back to her and blinked for a few seconds before realizing what she was trying to say. "Oh right uh-" he took a pitiful chunk of pancake off with his fork and ate it, "Delicious, thanks" he said sarcastically before turning back again, head still pounding (but he wasn't going to ever admit that).

Behind him, Tony heard a small huff of frustration escape her and no footsteps following it. "What?" Tony asked finally, turning to her one last time.

Pepper looked at him like an idiot when she said, "Tony you're not taking care of yourself for some stupid clock! You need sleep- and food- you need sleep and food- and Jesus Christ when was the last time you drank water?"

"Oh-" Tony squinted as his vision blurred out of fatigue, "um....so it's like- I dunno...just wanna finish this y’know" Pepper gave a psychotic sounding laugh and tugged at his shirt. Tony allowed her to pull him over to the closest couch and lay him down, too tired to stop her even though he technically shouldn't be because he just took a two hour nap like, four hours ago. Even then, he still wanted an actual sleep in anything other then a chair.

Pepper monitored him until he fell asleep, which didn't take very long really. She sat for a moment next to him, making sure he was really out so that he wouldn't go back to ruining his sleep schedule the second she walked out, even though she knew the damage was already done. Then she quietly stood up and left him to sleep for what would be almost 17 hours.

10:20 PM

Tony literally had no clue where he was for a second. He thought he fell asleep on a couch, oh wait yeah he was still on a couch. Well, mystery solved, he hadn't moved at all, he was just drowsy. At least he wasn't hungover like he usually is, though thinking about it now, he didn't really know which one was worse. His head still hurt but that might be because he only took one tiny bite out of the pancakes Pepper brought him and he hasn't had any water either.

He stared across the room at the abandoned project. His brain was telling him to keep working but the rest of his body was collapsing in on itself.

So he did the obvious thing and kept working.

Well, he tried to, but he couldn't find the pieces he needed. Seriously, there were like two pieces that he needed to make this entire thing and he lost the biggest one.

Well crap.

Tony found his way to the kitchen where Pepper was sitting, reading some book about politics or something, he didn't really care enough. After chugging half of a glass of water, he took the rest of it with him to sit by her at the table. "So uh....hi" Tony said quietly into his glass.

Pepper hinted at a smile, “Do you know what time it is?" She asked, not removing her eyes from the pages in front of her.

"Well I could if you hadn't dragged me away from my work" Tony mused. She looked up at him, her eyes clearly telling him to back down and stop being an ass, and then looked back at her book. "Sorry" Tony said quietly, finishing off the water and going back for a refill.

"Hey uh- did you happen to pick up a little....thingy? It's like, this big-" he pantomimed a small circle with his hands, no bigger then his thumb nail, "and uh....well it's like that big" Tony finished.

Pepper frowned, "Yeah, it was sitting on the floor, it think I threw it out. Looked like garbage.”

Tony froze in place and stared for a second. "You- you what?"

"I threw it out? Oh god you didn't need it right-"

"Of course I needed it!" Tony raised his voice slightly (not enough to upset her but enough to get a point across) "I- I can't get that back Pepper I needed it- it's like- it's important and people aren't just going to have it! I'm gonna have to get it from some deep dark web if I want any chance of seeing it again-"

Pepper marked her page and closed the book, full attention on Tony now. "Oh gosh that's....that's not good. Deep dark web?"

"Yes!" Tony drowned out the terror with more water, refilling it for the second time now.

Pepper fixed her eyes on the ground below her, "It can't be that rare Tony. It's a clock."

Tony groaned into his hands, "It’s a high tech clock that involves two very high tech pieces, how many systems do you think can have a realistic sense of time like JARVIS does- or- doesn't- but will!”

"Ever heard of Alexa?" Pepper droned.

Tony let out an annoyed groan. "God- just listen to me for once- I can't- just- just let me go eat cold pancakes. I'm gonna figure this out" Tony turned and walked out, leaving a full glass of water and one very peeved Pepper in his dust.

12:23 AM

Two hours. Jesus two hours. He'd been looking for this stupid no-bigger-then-a-zipper-sized piece for a smart clock for two hours, but he got it. He found it, he bought it, and now he has no purpose in life for five to seven business days. Well, let's hopes this is right and not some sort of weird voodoo magic rip off that will tear open the space time continuum.

5-7 Business Days Later

Well, it happened exactly like you would think. He screwed some clearly used and real black market rip off looking piece in just to get it over with and it blew up when he tried to put everything to use. There goes two weeks of his life.

Tony sat on the floor rubbing his eyes profusely, trying to rub away the disappointment with them. Not working. He opened his eyes to stare back at the failed project, the wrong date and time now programmed into the crappy hardware that destroyed his crappy chair.

Stupid chair.

Stupid clock.

Stupid idea.

Because thats what it was really. Tony should've known that it wouldn't work, if he messed it up before what the hell made him think he could fix it now. He was just stupid, insane, other adjectives with negative connotations that he didn't have enough left in him to think of.

He scooted closer to the sparking mess. A short flair of blue flew out of the wires in all directions, burning Tony- not like he felt it anyways.

A spark hit Tony right on the chest, and instead of bouncing off the arc reactor, it sort of... absorbed it.

But Tony could care less.

He had installed buttons just for testing purposes and now the panel with them sprawled across the floor in a sad display of the work Tony had put into this.

He heaved a sigh as he watched the sparks dance across the room in every which way. The clock read some random date- 4/20/6969 12:00 PM- that Tony had put in for testing purposes.

He shook his head staring at the clock and pursing his lips, waste of his time. He hurled the buttons across the room, and picked up the panel to do the same.

“Piece of shit.” Tony murmured.

The only good thing that came out of this failure was Tony’s incredible humor.

“4/20/6969... I’m a fucking genius.” He quietly joked.

He was about to take another nap, and then he started blinking. On the third blink he-

Well then he woke up.

Wait- when did he fall asleep...and where was he? Why did everything around him look so different?

His head hurt, his back hurt especially, like he had just been picked up and tossed to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. The date and time still tattooed on his eye lids, casting a blue light across the room resembling that of his own arc reactor.

Then opening his eyes, he realized that the time on the clock across the room had changed- 4/20/6969 12:01.

Oh god.

It shouldn't do that. It shouldn't. Unless it's tuned into the correct time, it won't move forward...and it obviously wasn't on the correct time.

12:02

12:03

12:09

He'd been staring for almost ten minutes-

12:10

-ten minutes now.

This wasn't right, something wasn't right, and he was too scared to go outside and find out what it was.

He thought of a specific time, 3/14/2012 1:36 PM, the time it had been before whatever this was, and pressed the buttons again just to see what would happen, and then he woke up again and things were...weirdly normal.

"No fucking way-" Tony muttered quietly to himself.

He looked across the room and the machine was broken on the ground, just as he left it.

No numbers on the screen.

No dates.

Just broken.

"Tony what happened down here?" Pepper gasped from behind him- wait- when did she get in here-

"Uh....black market.”

Pepper stared in disbelief, "Where did you just come from???"

Tony paused, "um....6969 I believe" he muttered quietly. 

“69...69?" Pepper repeated in awe of how stupid this whole thing was.

Tony measured his word carefully and landed on, "Yep....4/20 to be exact."

"Tony what are you talking about? Did you hit your head- oh lord Tony what is wrong with you-" she said quickly, taking brisk steps over to him.

"N- I'm fine- I think I can travel through time-"

Wait.

This wasn’t a dream.

“OhmygodIcantravelthroughtime.”

"Oh my god- oh my god- you must’ve gotten a concussion- we need to get you to a hospital-"

“No- nonono- no hospital! Pepper you-“ he lost his balance and grabbed onto Pepper’s shoulders, “Pepper I just figured out time travel!“

Pepper paused and started crying a little.

“Oh god. You finally broke.”

“No! I’m not broken! I figured out TIME TRAVEL. TIME TRAVEL PEP! Oh my god- I single handedly created time travel with like- what? Only 24 hours of sleep? Holy fucking shit- I’m- I am LITERALLY the smartest fucking genius on earth. First a new element and and- and now time travel? Pep I am the most-“

“Idiotic, insane man-“ Pepper stared at him. “You need therapy.”

“No! No! I’m serious! I’m NOT crazy Pepper! T... Tell me you don’t think I’m crazy!”

“...I need to tell Rhodey...” she sat down on the couch and rubbed her temple, taking her phone out.

“I can prove it! Pep I can prove it! Please you- you gotta believe me- look just- just give me like a date-“

“Hey James? Um.. I can’t- I don’t know how to explain this but Tony is- he’s not ok...” Pepper was so stressed she couldn’t stop the tears.

“Pepper! Listen to me! Give me a date! Any date at all I’ll, like, bring back a dinosaur egg for you or something! Wait... that’s- probably not safe- and I’m not even sure I can bring stuff back... Jarvis write that down I need to test that-“

“Please James- god it- it looks like World War II in here I’ve never been so-“

“World War II! You got it- just let me head to ummm- ah hell, I don’t know- 1942?" Tony focused on a specific date- “May? Fuck it. May 19th, 1942, 3:44 PM-“

“What? Tony what the hell are you-“ Pepper sighed and looked down at her phone. “Rhodey come down here right now he’s not-“ she looked back up and saw Tony-

Well she didn’t see Tony.

Just... blue sparks.

Pepper dropped the phone and stood up.

“Oh my god.”


	2. Break a Leg

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to post this!

—May 19th, 1942, 3:44 PM—

Tony started blinking and the workshop disappeared at the 3rd blink. Taking its place: a weird ass laboratory.

Tony winced as he heard static. He walked around and saw a frail boy laying in a strange machine.

“Oh my god- did I travel into a fucking torture chamber-" Tony whisper-yelled. He saw an old man speaking into a microphone.

“Uh- hello? Can you hear me?” Static. “Is this on- oh- ok... Ladies and Gentlemen, today we take not another step towards annihilation, but the first step...”

Tony stared at some men strapping down the boy, who looked oddly calm.

“on the path to peace.”

“My ass.” Tony whispered. This isn’t peaceful at all. Of course he landed in some kind of weird sex cult meeting. Tony was about to find an exit until he heard the man talk about micro injections.

“The serum infusion will cause immediate cellular change.” The man said. Tony stared at the little bottles containing blue liquid.

A nurse injected the boy.

The boy winced. "That wasn’t so bad.” Whoa. Deep voice. Maybe not a boy, then.

“...that was penicillin." The man said. Tony couldn’t help but let out a little snort.

His enjoyment was cut short. Tony looked over at the man controlling the switch and his heart stopped.

He looked just like Tony.

“Serum infusion beginning in 5...”

Oh no.

“4...”

“Fucking shit.” Tony needed to get out of here.

He turned, but was stopped by a nurse.

“3...”

“Mr. Stark? I almost didn’t recognize you. Aren’t you supposed to be with the professor?” The nurse asked.

This must be a dream right?

“2...”

No- it wasn’t- he knew it wasn’t-

“....1.”

The switch flipped and Tony and the nurse turned to the boy.

No.

Not a boy.

Captain America.

The liquid began being injected into him.

“Now Mr. Stark.” the man turned to Howard.

Shit. Shit shit. Tony ran and hid before the nurse could realize that Tony wasn’t Mr. Stark.

Tony stopped and looked at the machine close around the Captain.

The man knocked on the capsule. “Steven? Can you hear me?”

“It’s probably too late to go to the bathroom, right?”

Tony snorted again. He couldn’t ever imagine his childhood hero making bathroom jokes.

The man smiled. “We will proceed.” He looked at Mr. Stark.

Tony looked as well.

“That’s 10%.” said the older Stark.

Huh. He sounds different when he isn’t drunk and throwing bottles at the wall behind him, Tony thought.

“20%.”

A bright light started to emerge from the capsule.

“30.”

But Tony couldn’t stop staring.

“That’s 40%.”

“Vital signs are normal.” said a male nurse.

“That’s 50%. 60.”

Tony had to stop staring at the glowing capsule, it was hurting his already sore eyes.

“70.”

The room was quickly filled with a blood curdling scream.

Tony’s heart stopped and he stared at the capsule, almost burning his eyes.

“STEVEN!” The man yelled, banging on the capsule. Scientists in lab coats surrounded the machine with the frail man inside, clearly in pain.

“SHUT IT DOWN!” A woman above them yelled.

Tony looked up at the second floor. “Aunt Peggy?” He said to himself.

“Kill the reactor, Mr. Stark!” Tony watched his father frantically head over to the switch-

“NO! DON’T!”

Everyone turned to the capsule. God, he sounded like he was dying.

“... I can do this.” said the Captain.

There was a pause, a pause of hesitation. Everyone knew he was most likely going to die.

Howard continued turning the power up.

Tony’s heart started beating faster.

“80.” He continued.

God. Tony couldn’t watch.

“90.”

The room was fully lit with the brightest glow from the capsule.

“That’s 100%.” Howard said.

Tony watched as the control panel started sparking.

Suddenly, every other machine started to spark, it looked like a goddamn Disney fireworks show.

Finally, the capsule stopped glowing, flying sparks still everywhere.

There was one question everyone in that room was thinking.

Is he alive?

The painful sound of the machine shutting down echoed in Tony’s ears.

“Mr. Stark!” The old man yelled.

Tony instinctively shot his head up. Howard pressed a button and the capsule opened, revealing-

“Holy fucking shit.” Tony whispered to himself.

Captain America was fucking hot.

Everyone started to swarm the Captain and Tony followed the crowd.

“Steven-“ the man and Howard helped The Captain step out of the capsule.

"You actually did it." Howard said.

The sweaty Captain looked up and made eye contact with Tony.

And Tony couldn’t look away.

Steve blinked. “H..Howard?”

Shit.

“Yeah buddy?” Howard said.

Steve turned to Howard. “You gotta twin brother or something?”

Howard looked confused. “What? The serum mess with your brain or something?”

“No he-“ Steve turned back to the crowd but Howard’s twin was gone.

“Huh.” Steve blamed it on the serum. “Never mind, I guess.”

—January 25th, 1943, 7:19 PM—

“Aw great. Are you kidding me?" Tony groaned.

Apparently a fuck ton of stress will cause random time traveling. Would’ve been great to know that earlier.

“Where am I? Er- when am I, I guess-“

“Um- hello?” That deep voice sounded familiar. Tony turned around to a hot blonde sitting on the floor, drawing.

But not just any hot blonde.

“Oh. Hi Captain.” Tony was already trying to figure out how to get the fuck out of this. Was he breaking the universe right now, by talking to Captain America? Was he forming some kind of time paradox?

The soldier stared for a second. “Howard? Did you... grow a beard?” Cap tilted his head in confusion, looking closer at the stranger in the room.

“Oh. Oh no. Um. Distant cousin. I’m- fuck.” Tony paused for a second to come up with an actual good explanation. “I’m his cousin from Italy.”

Fuck. Wow. That was horrible. Like Captain America is gonna believe that stupid-

“Oh. Ok.” the blonde said. “I’m actually a friend of Stark’s.”

“Yes, I’m aware...” Tony rolled his eyes. He only heard his dad go on and on about Captain America for years.

The Captain stood up and walked towards Tony.

Tony took this moment to appreciate the serum's effects.

“Wow, you’re a lot bigger than I imagined- that’s what she said.” Tony couldn’t help it.

“Who’s she?” The soldier blinked.

“Hm? Oh- it’s- never mind, sorry. It’s an inside joke that I have with... my friend. Wouldn’t make sense if I explained it.” Nice save, dunce.

The Captain chuckled. Even his laugh is hot. Cute. He meant cute. And hot.

He held his hand out. “I’m Steve Rogers.”

Tony shook his hand. His really big hand- “Tony St-...acy.”

“Tony Stacy?”

“No. No that’s- that’s my middle name. My mom was like, crazy about having a girl but then she got me so she decided to make my middle name Stacy because that’s what she would’ve named me if I were a girl.”

FUCKING. SHUT. UP.

“I'm Tony... Potts." Because Pepper being super freaked out about how Tony disappeared was all he could think about right now. 

And Steve. And how hot Steve is.

Steve smiled. “Quite the introduction, Tony Stacy Potts."

Tony smiled back and noticed they were shaking hands for a long time.

He let go.

“So do you mind explaining how you got backstage?” Steve asked. Tony mindlessly babbled as he thought of a decently sensible explanation.

“Ha- eh- well um- you see... there was-“

A woman peeked into the room. “Captain? You’re on in five.”

Steve sighed and picked up the sketchbook he left on the floor and placed it on a nearby table.

“Backstage... On in five? Are you in a Broadway show or something?” Tony asked.

Steve snorted. “No. My pipes weren’t meant for singing.”

God, even when he snorts he’s h-

Tony shook his head. This was no time to gawk over Captain America.

“It’s this stupid Captain America tour they forced me to do, you haven’t heard of it? Captain America: touring the world.. Kind of a waste to use one of science’s most incredible creations in some Vaudeville act, don’t y’think?” Steve frowned, putting on the mask. “Well uh, it was nice meeting you Tony. Gotta get this over with now.”

“Of course. Break a leg! Well, I mean, don’t actually break a leg, that would be horrible, although you heal quicker than any other human on Earth so I guess it isn’t the worst thing in the world,” Wow. Fun fact: Put a smoking hot blondie in front of Iron Man and he’ll lose all his brain cells.

Steve chuckled. “Thank you?” Steve turned but paused before leaving. “Hey, you never told me how y-“

Steve turned to see nothing but a blank wall.

He’s gone.

This situation feels too familiar.


End file.
